Dmitrii Indukov and his family have been free from financial worries for the past nine months. This is because Dmitrii, a Tashkent pensioner, has leased a garbage collection point from the city’s authorities and now, together with his wife and son, sorts through the waste brought here by residents of nearby Yakkasarai district. From their new brick house next to the collection point, the family retrieves recyclable materials such as paper, bottles, fabric, and plastic bags to sell to private firms, adding to his meager pension. Dmitrii is satisfied with his new job. “There were no such collection points in Tashkent earlier,” he says. “And the small house provides shelter from the cold, essential for the guard who works here round the clock.” Meeting the demands of a growing city Much has changed in Tashkent since 1996-1997. At the time, the city's two million residents produced more than 3,000 tons of solid waste a day. But the city was growing, and if the system of collection, removal and disposal of waste was not improved, sanitary conditions could worsen leading to epidemics of infectious diseases. Waste removal vehicles needed to be upgraded, and transportation improved. Collection points needed fencing, and new bins purchased. It was impossible to bring about these improvements using Hashar, the Uzbek tradition of voluntary work to benefit the community. That was when the government of Uzbekistan approached the World Bank. New equipment and streamlined procedures  Since1999, the World Bank’s Tashkent Solid Waste Management Project, has helped the city to purchase the latest equipment for collection, transportation and disposal of solid waste. It has also financed the construction of concrete, fenced collection points, and the purchase of special waste collection bins. To handle solid waste in a cost-effective and efficient manner, the project has also helped to construct transfer stations from where the waste is taken to a landfill.
 The US$56.3 million project is being financed through several sources, including the World Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Uzbek Government. The World Bank’s loan amounts to US$24 million, the EBRD’s to US$ 19.2 million in addition to a grant of US$2.1 million, and the Uzbek Government has contributed US$11 million.
Tashkent is now among the cleanest cities in countries of former Soviet Union  Over 13 thousand collection containers and three types of waste collection vehicles have been purchased and are in use across the city. In addition, excavators, bulldozers, and rollers for compacting the refuse in the landfill have been acquired. In the Khamza and Yakkasarai districts, two of the planned four transfer stations have been constructed and became operational in December 2003. More recently, another transfer station started operations in Yunosabod district. Each of these stations has the capacity to handle 200 thousand tons of solid waste per year.
The Project also has strengthened the financial status of the enterprise involved in the collection and removal of solid waste. Some 116 sets of computer equipment have been delivered, as well as three types of management software, for which personnel have been trained in their use.  The emergence of over 390 secure (or serviced) collection points and some 700 non-secure collection points stimulated the development of a market for recycled materials. The project also has resulted in the creation of about 1,000 new jobs. At the start of the project, 70 percent of Tashkent’s population was dissatisfied with the city’s solid waste collection service. For those receiving the highest level of service resulting from the project, 80 percent are now satisfied.
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